January 2000

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Features

Narcolepsy

Although people with the disorder do not fall face-first into their soup as in the movies, narcolepsy is still a mysterious disease. But science has new leads

By Jerome M. Siegel

The Nobel Prizes for 1999

Explanations of the science underlying the world's most prestigious awards
for physics, chemistry and physiology plus a look at the prizes for peace, won by a physicians organization, and economics

By Carol Ezzell, Glenn Zorpette, Graham P. Collins and Sasha Nemecek

Snowball Earth

Ice entombed our planet hundreds of millions of years ago, and complex animals evolved in the greenhouse heat wave that followed

By Paul F. Hoffman and Daniel P. Schrag

Negative Energy, Wormholes and Warp Drive

The construction of wormholes and warp drive would require a very unusual form of energy. Unfortunately, the same laws of physics that allow the existence of this negative energy also appear to limit its behavior

By Lawrence H. Ford and Thomas A. Roman

Once We Were Not Alone

Today we take for granted that Homo sapiens is the only hominid on Earth. Yet for at least four million years many hominid species shared the planet. What makes us different?

By Ian Tattersall

Voyage to SUPERHEAVY Island

The synthesis of element 114 confirmed decadesold theoretical predictions of a little patch of nuclear stability in a sea of shortlived superheavy nuclei

By Kenton J. Moody, Vladimir K. Utyonkov and Yuri Ts. Oganessian

The Unmet Need for Family Planning

Women and men in many countries still lack adequate access to contraceptives. Unless they are given the option of controlling their fertility, severe environmental and health problems loom in the coming century throughout large parts of the world

Making Money the New-Fashioned Way

JUMBO TROUBLE

SELF-CONTROL IN THE SKIES

WINDS OF CHANGE

Melting Away

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